Oh shoot, 10,000 dollars down in the toilet. U must be worth for the company to spend on you and they did not tell you this. Gee. I am glad u found out instead of being not know anything about it. It must be feeling low point of your life. Thank for interest and make me feel better knowing I am not only one to deal with feeling.
No, you are not alone. Here's my story as short as possible.
Good to find out, because it's always good to know. I'm no longer working in the air cargo industry but it was FUN while it lasted. The company went out of business. Funny you saying low point in life---it happens to all of us. Not when I found out. It was when this happened:
I got fired two days after the Feds raided the company on immigration charges. Seven employees were arrested. Long story, but I was at the security booth when they came rolling in. Looked like I called them in! I did not. Yet they rounded EVERYONE up. Even the upper management! The President was very humilated. He was being rounded up too! The only one that was not rounded up? Me! The Feds needed to know where some key things were. I showed them. Mind you, do not mess with the Feds when they want something. The President actually chewed me out in front of everyone in the pen but I could not understand him so I "listened" to him out of respect. We called him Captain (name) instead of Mr. or Senor. The feds were going through all the paperwork.
Long story short, I knew where the skeltons were and opened files drawers! So the management were still furious with me. Called me into the boardroom to fire me. I grabbed my right hand man to MAKE SURE I understood everything, even in Spanish. A long list of bad things. I reduced that to only one. Theft of company equipment when I wasn't trying to steal! Police was never called in for that one. No proof against me, but they fired me anyway. So I YELLED back at the President right there in the board room. "How could you fire me two weeks after proclaiming me the MOST valuable in Security on the say so of your daughter who had wanted me out all along?" He just sat there speechless. My right hand guy almost laughed. So I just accepted my fate and went home. The guy (I'll call him X) I was doing this job for while he was out on unemployment, got furious and called the company and said, "You are making a real SERIOUS mistake firing this woman". They scoffed. So the next morning, I went to see the Feds after warning X that I'd do this, no matter what. Once in the INS building, I told the agents: YOU FEDS messed up. Here's what you missed on your search warrant. You missed three companies under this big umbrella!! They were shocked and tried to get me to do the pen and paper thing like in the police movies. I said "Hell no, I came here to tell you of your mistakes but I am NOT signing any death warrants". Off I went back home. I was hopping mad. My car breaks down the next day--so I wasn't home when the Feds came to "arrest" me. The INS called the FAA to come get me!
By the time I came home, I already had a criminal defense lawyer! There's a reason why we have a Whistleblower's Protection law now. It was not set up to protect people when I got even with the Company. I did this without the protection of the government. I had the smoking gun they were looking for against the Company. The Company was never ever back in business. Too much dirt to haul out of the hole. My lawyer found a legal loophole that so FAA could not NAIL me. To them, I was a Company employee. So the FAA nailed them instead. X told me "They're going to be paying for a long time over firing you. You nailed them really good. I did not know X was just as guilty. He was the one that should have been nailed for the theft of company equipement. I found out exactly who owned that equipment years later when I asked someone who knew ALL of us and could safely answer that one without getting into trouble himself.
Of course, the Company found a way to nail me through unemployment. I fought them in court over that, but lost. By then, I got a job. X was never able to get unemployment. They knew he stole the equipment through me. Now he's a SWAT commander.
Back to the low point? I found out soon after that, I was pregnant! Wooo!
The dad did not want the baby! Ok, I'll be a single mom. Told my family and friends and started to move on. Then miscarried! So I picked up from that. Only to get in a car accident that I almost died in! I was knocked out for 40 minutes upon impact. Gone. I came to. Lost my beautiful convertible!!! I could not work for almost two months. That delayed my moving out. So that's 1997 as my low point in my life. Life has been great for 11 years now.
Everything happens for a reason.
